Air Forest is a temporary public pavilion installed in City Park, Denver,
Colorado, USA, for Dialog:City, an arts and cultural event during the Democratic
National Convention 2008.
Site
Located in east-central Denver, City Park is the largest and most notable
park in Denver. This historic 1.3 km2 park has large open grass fields with
Ferril Lake in its center, with a ring of trees all around the lake and
the park’s perimeter. There is a main east-west axis that crosses the lake,
starting from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on the lake’s eastern
edge (at the park’s highest elevation) to the landmark boat pavilion to
the west on the other side of the lake, past which one can see the Denver
skyline and the mountains beyond. The ring of trees becomes disconnected
at this axis on both sides of the lake, to provide a vantage point.
Program
Denver Office of Cultural Affairs had hosted an event called Dialog:City,
an arts and cultural event for the public, inspired on the occasion of the
city of Denver hosting the National Democratic Convention 2008. The event
invited 10 artists and architects to design or exhibit site-specific projects
at various locations of the city, for the public to converge and spark dialogue
across the city through innovative cultural initiatives, during the period
of 24th to 30th August. Our invitation was to create a temporary public
space to be utilized in a vast array of scheduled events (such as the Yoga
Health Festival, a cocktail party for the convention, a high school play,
Dialog:City closing party) as well as for the general public to enjoy.
Air Forest
Air Forest is a 56.3m long, 25m wide pneumatic structure, composed of 9
hexagonal canopy units, at 4m height. These units are interconnected as
one large piece of fabric, which are then inflated from the 14 blowers that
are located at the base inside its 35 columns. These columns are 5m apart,
and are weighed down by dirt and lighting elements which are also inside
the columns, which light up at night and provide a public space after dark
as well. 6 each of these pneumatic columns form a unit as they are connected
in a hexagonal manner creating a circular opening from their inside perimeter.
Out of the 9 total hexagonal units formed, 3 of them are left open-air while
the remaining 6 have vortex-shaped meshes that hang from them, providing
shades for the public from the harsh sunlight. The nylon fabric is coated
with a gradient of silver dots, whose reflective surface mimics the colors
of its surrounding environment, as well as providing a playful dotted shadow
on the people under the structure.
Mass Studies
Fuji Bldg. 4F
683-140 Hannam 2-dong Yongsan-gu
Seoul
140-892
Korea
LINKS:
Project
Data
ARCHITECT: Minsuk Cho + Kisu Park
DESIGN TEAM: Mass Studies (Joungwon Lee,Bumhyun Chun, Kyungmin Kwon, Sungpil Won)
LOCATION: City Park, Denver, Colorado, USA
GROSS FLOOR AREA: 673 m2
BUILDING SCOPE: 56.3m (L) x 25m (W) x 4m (H)
STRUCTURE: Pneumatic
FINISHING: Nylon fabric with silver dot printing
FABRICATOR/CONSTRUCTION : ABR
DESIGN PERIOD: 2008.04 - 2008.08
CONSTRUCTION PERIOD: 2008.08
CLIENT: Denver Office of Cultural Affairs
| Channelbeta Information Channel on Contemporary Architecture |
|
[2009-06-02] |
| picture provided by the author |
AIR FOREST - City Park, Denver, Colorado
